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Gaytri Deshmukh

Lark isn’t your normal princess. She’s the princess of Myrinor, an influential kingdom with a rich history. Along with that title come great responsibilities, such as learning swordplay, trying her best to be the perfect role model, and most importantly, hiding her deepest secret. As days go by, she discovers that her best friend, Julian, is not what he seems. An ancient curse resurfaces from the past and drags them both into the heart of a forgotten kingdom. The fates of both kingdoms rest in their hands. The quest begins to end it all.

Score: 3 starsBreakdown:

Plot – 2.5

Characters – 3

Writing – 3.5

This is a strong book, if you want to sit down for an afternoon of escapism. It’s got a princess, mythical creatures, true love and an evil villain. Sometimes that’s exactly what I am in the mood for: a story that takes me away from the real world and deposits me in a new place where I can have faith that good will conquer evil and love will win out in the end. The writing is fluid, the descriptions shine and the writer never descends into language that is pretty but meaningless. There are a few typos but nothing that would detract from enjoying the book. I didn’t like the multiple punctuation (?! is used frequently) or capitalised words, but again, that doesn’t effect the reading.

I liked Julian, the dragon shape-shifter love interest. He’s easy on the metal eye and perfect for escapist fiction with his strong arms and dedication to the main character, Lark. I wanted to like her more. Her full name, Gaylark, was really pretty in my opinion, and I enjoyed the fact the book opened with her sword fighting. To be fair, there was little bad about Lark as a person. She wasn’t whiny, spoiled or selfish, and she has a strong and determined spirit. She just didn’t really do much. I quite liked Seth, too and I was glad the author refrained from setting up a love triangle. His development was predictable, but it was a comfortable sort of predictable, like well worn shoes.

While Lark is not quite a sit in the tower and wait to be rescued type princess, she’s not terribly instrumental in moving the plot, either. While Julian fights for her, she rescues him from a siren simply by being in the same room. She doesn’t do anything, but the siren would rather deal with her than him and he gets away. There is a plot reason for this, but it makes the rescue feel anticlimactic. She is instrumental in the climax of the book, but it doesn’t feel like something she alone could have done. Things happened a bit easily in the book for me to feel the tension. At least two major plot items fall into Lark’s lap, one almost literally and just in the nick of time. Julian’s identity feels convenient and mostly unnecessary. It only really has an impact on the events right at the end. The villain’s plan didn’t really let me know how he was going to take over the kingdom. It was just accepted that he would. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if I felt like Lark was working for the victory more.

Despite that, I did enjoy the book. It’s good escapism, the sort of tale you can wrap yourself up in to shut out the complications and contradictions of the real world. You probably won’t be surprised by anything in it, but sometimes it’s nice to see where you’re going. I did think the last line was an adorable mixture of cheesy and cute. You can buy Destinies Intertwined on Amazon and Smashwords, and catch up with the author on Figment, and Goodreads.